Road Tripping Through Iceland

This past July, 2010, I explored Iceland with my Finnish friend Sari Laukka. We rented a car in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, and drove a complete lap around the country on Route 1. Route 1 is the only road that circumnavigates the entire country, and passes through an incredible amount of different terrain. Overall, the trip took us a full 7 days, and we drove almost 2000km in our small Ford Ka.

While we were traveling, we stayed with friends on couches, camped out at some excellent campgrounds, and even stayed in a hotel made out of metal shipping containers. We likely averaged about 2.5 or 3 hours of driving per day, and the rest of the time we spent exploring everything we possibly could. We ripped through our Lonely Planet Iceland guidebook cover to cover, as well as went through other guidebooks, pamphlets, and most importantly, the excellent advice and guidance from locals and other fellow travelers.

During the trip, I kept both my Apple iPhone 4 and my Canon EOS 5Dmk2 cameras close by. The iPhone4 has an excellent 5 megapixel camera in it, geotags each photo, and is small and pocket-able – it was perfect for carrying around everywhere and pulling out in any situation – especially when being discreet was important for getting the candid shot. The Canon 5Dmk2 was also a pleasure to travel with. I had the somewhat large Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens on it, as well as my Benro carbon fiber travel tripod. As large as it was, it’s surprisingly easy to travel with, and very durable – it held up perfectly to the rigors of being knocked around daily, slung over my shoulder, and dangled into volcanic fissures. I synchronized the clocks on each camera before departing, so the photos in the overall photoset should be sequential, no matter which camera was used to take it.

Finally, while traveling, I used my iPhone4 with the WordPress application, coupled with the bluetooth Apple wireless keyboard to write brief blog post updates at the end of each day. I also carried with me a SPOT Satellite Messenger, which was used to “check in” with friends and family to let them know we were ok once in the middle of each day, and once at the end of each day after we have successfully secured night time accommodations and security.

Below is an index of the blog post from the field and a slideshow of all of the photos. If you’re interested in hearing more about the trip, or Iceland in general, let me know!